On their previous 5 studio efforts, Chicago genre-benders Umphrey’s McGee have struggled with a self-defeating blurry line between producing serious artistic visions, and yielding to their terribly misplaced “jamband” label by surrounding beautifully opaque diamonds with shiny, glossy, brainless lumps of coal. At times merely touching the surface of their prog-rock aptitude, the past [...]

Beneath the pastoral hills, the drooping trees, the ever so slightly side winding roads of Bronxville, there is a sound. It is comprised of a deep throbbing sonic blast, complimented by bursts of treble, shards of 808-Kick-drum hits, virulent synthesizer rave noises that are both terrifying and hilarious, and basslines that make you think somewhere, [...]

For a band that used to extol the virtues of “relaxing with the Disco Biscuits,” it would seem the venerable Philadelphia jam/prog/trance-fusion outfit had every reason in the world to take it slow and easy on the first sets of their 5-shows-in-6-nights run at NYC’s Nokia Theater. For one, the band was coming straight [...]

The Police – Certifiable/ A and M Records

Having seen the reunited Police experiment in 2007, with all the large stage spectacle that comes with one of the biggest fall-into-bed-with-ex-girlfriend circumstances in rock history, it’s nice to be able to take a strictly aural examination of what the unit that once broke boundries between punk, new [...]

I’m happy to say that my initial posts for TLR comes merely days away from a date in musical history that bears some small responsibility for most or all of which I’m about to say for the next few months/years/decades on this blog. 131 years of incredible and terrible recorded music, and the live spectacles [...]